Antoni Tàpies...Drawing for Lilith by J. E. Cirlot 1949

John Balance (Coil) ... Drawings from Bright Lights and Cats With No Mouths ~ The Art of John Balance Collected

The first ever extensive overview of art (drawings, paintings and sketches) created by John Balance.

The artworks featured in the book are both finished elaborate hallucinatory pieces as well as quick sketches with a good sprinkling of Balance’s often underestimated humour. 

Homages to idols and inspirations next to idiosyncratic magical dreamscapes

executed in a wide variety of styles and mediums

Compiled by Liam Thomas and Thighpaulsandra - with text by

Val Denham and Jeremy Reed.

The Art of John Balance Collected 

Stultifera navis (Ship of Fools) ... Sebastian Brant... woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer... 1498

Woodcuts attributed to  Albrecht Durer. Illustrations from the book

Stulifera navis (Ship of fools) by Sebastian Brant, published by

Johann Bergmann in Basel in 1498

Five Foolish Virgins

The Ship of Sight

Fools far, near and Forever

He Who Judges Others

Of Gods Plagues and Punishments

The Ship of Touch

Of Dancing

Of Luck

Of Scorned Joy

Of Wooing

Myths of Hindus and Buddhists...illustrations... 1913

Book illustration from ''Myths of Hindus and Buddhists'' by Ananda K Coomearaswamy and Sister Nivedita, 1913

Garuda by Nandalal Bose

Dhruva by Asit Kumar Haldar

Dhruva, a young devotee of Vishnu, was blessed with eternal existence and glory as the Pole Star.

Pururavas by Khitindra Nath Mazumdar

Pururavas was the first king of the Aila dynasty and a mythological entity associated with the sun and the dawn. 

The asceticism of Uma by Nandalal Bose

Kaliya Damana by Khitindra Nath Mazumdar

more HERE

Jack Lindsay...The Passionate Neatherd... illustrations...1928

The Passionate Neatherd. Sydney: Fanfrolico Press, [1928]

Abel Pann... The Bible: Genesis, from the Creation until the Deluge...1924

Gisèle Vallerey... illustrations for Contes en vingt lignes by Marguerite Burnat-Provins... 1922

more HERE

François Desprez...Recueil de la diversité des habits... 1564

more HERE

Filippo Ferroverde...Cartari’s Handbook of the Gods...1615

Mexican god from Codex Rios juxtaposed with Egyptian gods and hieroglyphs

Francisco Agüera Bustamante...La Portentosa vida de la muerte...1792

The earliest documented example of skeletal imagery in Mexico’s literary culture is thought to be the etchings accompanying the tragicomic protonovel, La Portentosa vida de la muerte, published in 1792 by Fray Joaquín Bolaños and illustrated by Francisco Agüera

Georges Malkine (1898-1970)...illustration... Follow New Songs...1933

illustration for Chansons Nouvelles Suivi  by Marc Fernand 1933

Books ...Magica De Spectris...Henning Grosse...1656

Doctor Johannes Faust ... books...Magia Naturalis et Innaturalis... 1849

the classic Magia naturalis et innaturalis was known to Johann W. von Goethe, who, like Gotthold Lessing, saw Faust's pursuit of knowledge as noble; in Goethe's great Faust the hero is redeemed.

FAUST

Pascal Beverly Randolph... Eulis “Affectional Alchemy” book covers ... 1930

The book, in German "Die sexualmagischen Lehren der Bruderschaft von Eulis", was originally

published by Randolph (1825-1875) in 1874 with the founding of The Brotherhood of Eulis ("Hermetische Bruderschaft vonLuxor"), presumably to work sex-magic. Randolph also founded the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, the oldest Rosicrucian

organization in the United States

excerpt...

So far well; but at last the world wants to know more of that wonderful fraternity, which, nameless at times for long centuries, blossomed a few centuries ago as Rosicrucia, but now has leaped to the fore-front of all the real reform movements of this wondefu1 age, and lo! the banner of peerless Eulis floats proudly—rock founded — on the breeze. We, the people of Eulis, be it known, are students of nature in her interior departments, and rejecting alike the coarse materialism of the ages, and the sham “philosophies” of the ages past and current, accept only that which forces conviction by its irresistible logic. Men who realize the existence of other worlds than this are not apt to give loose rein to passion; nor be content with fraud in any shape. We cannot take say-sos for facts, and therefore we reject much that appeals to others with the force of truth. We are ambitious to solve all possible mystery; we prefer one method to all other hyper-human agencies, knowing it to be infinitely preferable to all other modes of rapporting the occult and mysterious; and this book, and all others from the same pen, is but a very imperfect sketch or outline of the sublime philosophy of the Templars of EULIS. We know the enormous importance of the sexive principle; that a menstruating woman is an immense power if she but knew it! that a pregnant one holds the keys of eternal mystery in her hand, and that while thus she can make or mar any human fortune! We know the mystic act is one unhinging the gates alike, of heaven and of hell; and we know two semi-brainless people may, by an application of esoteric principles, stock the 

world with mental giants. But where shall we find students? Are not all the people, nearly, the slaves of lust, place, gold? Well, we find one now and then; and we hail him or her as the Greeks hailed the sea— with excessive joy! Thalatta! Thalatta! They are not multitudinous now, but will be in the good time coming. 

Randolph’s “Rosicrucian Apology” from the first chapter of Eulis!, “Affectional Alchemy” (1874)

Frans de Geetere & Arthur Rimbaud... The Stupra... 1925

Frans de Geetere ~ illustration for The Stupra 1925

The ancient beasts...

The ancient beasts bred even on the run,

Theirs glans encrusted with blood and excrement. 

Our forfathers displayed theirs members proudly

By the fold of the sheath and the grain of the scrotum.

In the middle ages, for a female, angel or sow,

A fellow whose gear was substantial was needed;

Even a Kléber, judging by his breeches which exagerate

Perhaps a little, can't have lacked resources.

Besides, man is equal to the proudest mammal;

We are wrong to be surprised at the hugeness of their members;

But a sterile hour has struck: the gelding

And the ox have bridled their ardours, and no one

Will dare again to raise his genital pride

In the copses teeming with comical children.

Arthur Rimbaud ~ The Stupra 1925

William T. Horton (1864-1919)...A book of images...1898

A book of images drawn by W.T. Horton & introduced by W.B. Yeats

Giottino Humbert de Superville (1770–1849)... Symbol and Myth...1827

Humbert de Superville, David Pierre Giottino ~ 1827

 Essai sur les signes inconditionnels dans l'art

John Buckland Wright...wood engraving... 1949

Marcus Behmer... illustration... 1912

from Voltaire's ‎Zadig And Other Stories 1912

 

Willy Pogany... illustrations from The Song Celestial 1934

from The Song Celestial (Bhagavad Gita) by Sir Edwin Arnold 

illustrated by Willy Pogany

Dwelling outside the stress

Of passion, fear, and anger; fixed in calms

Of lofty contemplation;

 The Doors of Hell

Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, --

The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door 

Of Averice.

" The elements, the conscious life, the mind,
The unseen vital force, the nine strange gates
Of the body, and the five domains of sense;
Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thought
Deep-woven, and persistency of being;
These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul! "

 Chapter 13

previous POGANY